In her innovative life of the author of the
immensely influential Brief Lives, sketches of
most of seventeenth-century England’s intellectual elite, Scurr creates a life-spanning diary
out of Aubrey’s own words in his manuscripts
and letters and as reported by contemporaries,
arranging them “playingly” (as Aubrey said
of his writing) but “carefully in chronological order.” While tracing every paragraph to
its source, she doesn’t fill in gaps, define rare
words, or describe greater social and political
contexts. Despite the frustration this hands-off approach engenders, the book bubbles
with the energy and obsessions of the fussy,
totally committed Aubrey. From boyhood, he
was fascinated by ruins and old objects, living
(trees) and inanimate (buildings, furniture);
while seeing old manuscripts rent asunder to
stopper bottles and wrap bread loaves appalled
him. The animals and plants, the climate, and
the land and its uses in any discrete locality
also enthralled him, so that he was a natural
historian as well as an antiquarian. Oh, and
a participant-fan of scientific experimentation
who yet doted on astrology. Quite the man,
vividly present here. —Ray Olson

Northmen: The Viking Saga, 793–1241 AD.

By John Haywood.

Sept. 2016. 400p. illus. St. Martin’s/Thomas Dunne,

$29.99 (9781250106148). 948.022.

Haywood’s subtitle is sobering, indicating as
it does that the astonishing violence of Europe’s
northernmost peoples spanned four-and-a-half
centuries. Haywood proceeds chronologically
overall while switching sectional focus from
England to France to Scotland and so forth,
backing up in time as needed. In western Europe, Norwegian and Danish Vikings were
pirates with plenty of coast to raid, plundering,
killing, and taking captives to sell as slaves. In
the east, Swedes sailed up the rivers of Russia
and down those flowing into the Black and
Caspian seas; trade figured sooner and more
extensively in their depredations. Both western
and eastern Vikings settled and cooperated as
they raided, and the national agglomeration
and centralization of those they attacked they
gradually developed back home. Toward the
end of their era, having adopted Christianity,
they participated in crusades in both the Holy
Land and their own precincts. Although Haywood doesn’t seem to know the word whom,
and the reader boggles at all the Erics, Sveins,
and Olafs, Northmen is probably the Viking
history for our time. —Ray Olson

Once upon a time, Porath, an animatorfor a little company called DreamWorksAnimation, joked around with his workbuddies about women who would never gettheir own princess movies—and with that,the Rejected Princesses blog was born. Likehis blog, the purpose of the book is to shinea light on remarkable women of the past,regardless of whether they were remarkablefor noble or horrifying reasons. More than100 entries range from fairy tales such asthe Norwegian Tatterhood, who rode a goatand fought off trolls with a wooden spoon,to historical figures like “Stagecoach” MaryFields, an emancipated slave who becameone of the first female U.S. postal carriersand famously fought off wolves to deliverthe mail. Each entry includes a thought-ful illustration, often further explained viaan “Art Notes” section. Porath’s writing ishighly entertaining but casual. (He writes,for example, that revolutionaries startedthe Mexican Revolution by telling Presi-dent Diaz to stop being a jerk.) He lumpsentries into three categories: green, yellow,or red. Moral, happy-ending-type storiesare in the green category, at the beginningof the book. Stories with darker themesmore appropriate to adults are in the redsection, at the end. Otherwise, the entriesare in no particular order, and there is noindex, so this “reference-y” book is mostsuitable for browsing—but very appropriatefor both reference and circulating collec-tions at high-school and public libraries.—Emily Compton-Dzak

YA: Teens will have great fun reading
about these fearless, fabulous females. RV.

The Six: The Lives of the Mitford Sisters.

By Laura Thompson.

Sept. 2016. 480p. St. Martin’s, $29.99

(9781250099532). 920.72.

Statistical odds are against six out of seven
children in one family being of the same gender, but Mother Nature met her match in the
redoubtable Mitford family, specifically the
six daughters of Lord and Lady Redesdale,
born between 1904 and 1920. Obviously, at
the time of the sisters’ advent into adulthood,
social expectations would ordinarily envision
them as becoming quiet mothers and wives.
But Thompson summarizes their endeavors
this way: “writer, countrywoman, Fascist,
Nazi, Communist, and duchess.” The author
does a remarkable job of isolating the sisters’
individualism, defining in fluid, sensitive,
and authoritative language their individual
distinctions, while at the same time keeping
a sharp but understanding eye on the bigger picture: that the backdrop of their lives
together and individually was the changing
social and political landscape Britain was
experiencing at the time. “Looking as they
did [striking, in other words], the Mitford
girls were never going to be ignored. Being
what they were, they did not want to be.”
Appreciators of biography and social history
will find much to engage their interest here.

What do James Joyce, Marie Curie, Sylvia
Beach, Igor Stravinsky, and Man Ray have in
common? Along with those named in the title,
they are among the cast of characters McAuliffe
(Twilight of the Belle Époque, 2014) portrays in
her tour of Les années folles, the Golden Twenties in the City of Light. She transports us
to Montparnasse, populated by artists, writers, musicians, tourists, and an assortment of
larger-than-life personalities whose “spirit . . .
flowed on a river of coffee, alcohol, and chat.”
Beginning with the end of WWI, McAuliffe
carefully chronicles each year of that dynamic
decade that saw change on so many fronts,
including fashion, art, music, literature, and
social behavior. She weaves together an array
of stories of well-known as well as some lesser-known individuals to create a vibrant tapestry
shot through with color, chaos, and creativity.
Graced with period photographs and bolstered
with an impressive selection of sources, When
Paris Sizzled will captivate anyone who has
wondered just what the Lost Generation was
up to. —Carolyn Mulac

In the midst of its centennial, there has been
an outpouring of new literature concerning
the First World War. Prolific writer and editor Tucker continues his long and prestigious
career by offering a means to gain a solid, basic understanding of the conflict, gathering
an array of experts in 83 alphabetized entries
related to the war.

Subjects as varied as African Americans and
World War I, Chemical weapons, Lusitania,
and Sergeant Alvin York are concisely handled
in one- to several-page entries. Each entry is
followed by suggestions for further reading,
and an extensive bibliography is included. In
addition to the main body of subject entries
are a collection of 21 annotated primary documents, such as the Zimmerman telegram and
the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. An overview of the
war, including its causes and consequences, is
included, along with maps and other pertinent
illustrations. There is also a detailed chronology of war-related happenings and an appendix
of historical-dilemma essays, such as the relative success or failure of the Treaty of Versailles
peace settlement. With clearly written prose
and a range of resources, Tucker’s book lives up
to its title claim as an essential reference guide
for high-school and college students looking
for a start to a research project or any reader
who is seeking a better understanding of the
Great War and its ramifications. —Jim Frutchey
Continued from p. 20